A brave mum-of-two who was sexually abused by her uncle finally feels “free” after she helped jail him – more than 40 years on from his horrific crimes.
Jayne Emsley, now 56, was just 12 when Martin Glynn Whittle, now 72, forced himself upon her in a home after getting her drunk on cider at a working men’s club.
She then felt she had to keep the harrowing experience a “secret”, which "robbed" her of her childhood and "damaged" her relationship with her mum.
But Jayne, who has waived her right to anonymity, was moved to report the assault to police in May 2022 after reading about another high-profile abuse case.
Whittle was found guilty following a trial of indecent assault on a child aged under 14 years and sentenced to four and half years in jail on August 12.
And while Jayne felt “glad” that the retired miner had finally got his “comeuppance”, she said she would never get over what he had done to her.
Jayne Emsley, now 56, was just 12 when Martin Glynn Whittle, now 72, forced himself upon her in a home after getting her drunk on cider at a working men’s club.
She then felt she had to keep the harrowing experience a “secret”, which "robbed" her of her childhood and "damaged" her relationship with her mum.
But Jayne, who has waived her right to anonymity, was moved to report the assault to police in May 2022 after reading about another high-profile abuse case.
Whittle was found guilty following a trial of indecent assault on a child aged under 14 years and sentenced to four and half years in jail on August 12.
And while Jayne felt “glad” that the retired miner had finally got his “comeuppance”, she said she would never get over what he had done to her.
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FunTranscript
00:00I'm Jane Emsley and I live in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
00:05I was 12 years old on a break at my grandfather's farm in Huddersfield
00:11and my uncle turned up to take me and my sister out for the day,
00:15leaving his young son at home.
00:18I took us to a local club and plied us with alcohol and cigarettes
00:24and then took me to a house which I presume he rented or lived in on his own
00:30and he orally and vaginally raped me.
00:33Because it was done in the era that it was done,
00:36I didn't feel that I could tell my mum who was quite ill at the time.
00:41When I arrived, eventually came home from the farm,
00:45I came home to my parents had spit up,
00:50that's what they were doing while we were away,
00:52so I came home to a minefield really
00:55and I couldn't drop another bomb into what was already a really bad situation.
01:00So I didn't say anything.
01:03Then coming up to 15,
01:05my mum decided that she was going to move back to Huddersfield to be closer to her family.
01:11So I ran away from home and from then I lived in bedsits
01:17and slept on sofas for a while until I found my feet.
01:21I went through an awful couple of years
01:24and eventually got myself a good job working for a newspaper
01:30and saved up enough money to purchase my own home.
01:34I had to leave Harrogate, I couldn't afford to buy Harrogate,
01:37but I moved over to West Yorkshire but not the Huddersfield area.
01:41In 2021, I saw on social media
01:47that a martial arts couple who my son had a lot to do with
01:52were sentenced for some serious child sex offences
01:56and it shook the martial arts world.
02:01We then, I wondered whether he'd been involved in it,
02:06whether they'd got to him, whether they'd been near him,
02:09as he was very involved in them.
02:13It got too close to home for me
02:15so I literally went to the police station and told my story
02:18and I was believed from the moment I spoke to them.
02:22I was believed and that was a massive relief to me
02:27that somebody did believe me and I'd eventually told my story
02:30and that was 43 years, I think.
02:35The court process was really well supported by West Yorkshire Police.
02:43I was told everything that would happen.
02:46However, the offence that he was charged with was sexual assault
02:51because oral penetration wasn't considered rape back in 1981.
02:58The second charge of rape, which he did, we were left with a hung jury.
03:05The CPS did want to do a retrial
03:08but because of the stress that it put my family under,
03:13the fact that a retrial would be in two years' time, in 2026 we were told,
03:19and the fact that my uncle was now 72,
03:23I didn't want to go ahead with a retrial.
03:27He would walk free during that time,
03:29he wouldn't be sentenced for the first count
03:32and I felt so uncomfortable knowing that he was out on the streets,
03:35knowing that I'd told.
03:37He got what I would think a short sentence.
03:41The judge actually declared five and a half years.
03:44That was made up of three and a half years of time that he should serve,
03:48a year on licence and then an extra year which would also be on licence,
03:54which is something that the judge could grant for a serious offence.
03:57But I'm led to believe he's only going to be serving three and a half years.
04:03For me, that's not long enough.
04:05It's not reflective of what the sentence would be today,
04:10which is a life sentence.
04:12Had he been charged for both, it would have had two life sentences.
04:16Moving forward, I'm glad I did it
04:20and I wish that other people would do it.
04:25For me, the support of West Yorkshire Police has been phenomenal
04:30and it's totally changed what in 1981 I would never have gone to the police
04:36because I don't think they would have believed me,
04:39to now I would really encourage anybody to go to the police
04:42because they are trained now.
04:44They have special officers and ultimately they will listen to you
04:48and they will believe what you say.
04:50Tell somebody.
04:52If it's now, tell somebody.
04:55Don't stay quiet.
04:57Tell the teacher if you can't tell your parents.
04:59I nearly did and I didn't and I should have done.